Texan in Tahiti

Bonjour Ma Famille, 

This past week was probably the worst week and the BEST weekend of my entire mission. Why? Because remember last week when I was sick with Chinkungunya? Well I thought I would get over it in like a day or so but I was out the WHOLE week! It was awful. I could hardly move and I was so wiped that I spent the whole week in bed. It was lame. It's not fun being a sick missionary. 

But then this weekend we had the marriage of Dewis and Laetitia and our FOUR baptisms on Saturday!! That's why it was the best weekend. 

Dewis and Laetitia's wedding was so great and the members did so much so that they could have a great wedding. Dewis made me laugh with his gloves and everything and Laetitia was gorgeous! Everybody loved it and it was really great because we talked with a lot of her friends and family that came. Saturday morning was the baptism and it was really one of the most rewarding baptisms ever. 

Every investigator has a journey that they take before they are ready to enter into the waters of baptism. 

Dewis and Laetitia have been prepared for a LONG time. We didn't make a huge difference in their life but they really made a huge difference in mine. They both had a testimony when I met them. Dewis just had a hard time to stop smoking and Laetitia didn't have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. We taught and encouraged Dewis and we decided to fast together. We did our fast and we were ecstatic to know that the Sunday afterward, he had finally stopped smoking.

When Laetitia couldn't say that she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, we committed her to read and pray and to ask God if it was true. She made this commitment and the next lesson we had, she bore one of the most powerful and simplest testimonies of the Book of  Mormon that I've ever heard an investigator give. 

Dewis and Laetitia just have this desire to know and to understand so that they can follow Christ. Seeing them baptized was really a tender mercy of the Lord because they are FINALLY members of the Church of Jesus Christ. 

For Vahinetua and Mihiura, the journey that they took was really a tender miracle from God. Vahinetua didn't take the lessons anymore when I first got here in this sector. She was stubborn and a little prideful. She would purposely tell us that she wanted to smoke to show us that she was far from being ready to be baptized. When we did our service project with them, I just knew that she would end up being baptized with her daughter. I knew that is what God wanted for her. 

So when she came up to us after doing our lesson with her daughter and asked us when her lesson was, I knew that she had humbled herself and knew that seeking our help would finally help her to stop smoking as well. We had countless lessons about repentance and the importance of following Christ and she got to a point where she was so sick of smoking that she decided she would quit that week. SO SHE DID! She quit smoking and was baptized 2 weeks later.

For Mihiura, she was an investigator that really found the purpose of being baptized while we did the lessons with her. She gave a very powerful and simple testimony at her baptism that warmed our hearts. 

I'll never be able to express my gratitude for these wonderful people that we were able to teach. I know that God loves me because he let these people become some of my greatest friends and that is something incredible. 

After such a wonderful weekend, that definitely motivated us to work even harder because y'all have no idea how much work we have to do to make up for the time we lost with the sickness. We have so many new investigators to find so this week will be fun. Christmastime is always a little difficult to see our investigators but that's okay. We are going to have fun going around singing and giving out cookies and cards. That should make it a great Christmas.

JOYEUX NOEL A VOUS TOUS! 

Merry Christmas y'all! 

Soeur Falesii's birthday!! She turned 20 and we were both sick! That's ok, it was fun anyways.

Lots of love, 

Soeur Taylor